The Understudy
by Wanderlustlover
Summary: Clark's boyfriend really won't approve of his newest delight.


**Time era:** About a year half since Clark started at the Daily Planet. Can be any genre from L&C, cartoon to comics.

The Understudy, Part One

~

The rush of the kiss was everything that the body surrenders to, yielding everything that was inside him. Sending every thought and intention away in a whirl wind. It was a flush of fire up through the skin that seared the hips where they were pressed together almost like one, only cloth keeping skin from searing against skin. It was a dizzying sensation that flooded through the mind till all that one could feel were anxious hands and probing lips against roughened mouths.

"Shit!"

Gasping for air she pressed frantic hands against his chest, and for just a moment they were paper dolls and bird wings fluttering against his skin. His mind cleared as he fought his own need to keep going against his control to listen to let her go for something equally pressing; work. Which is what they were supposed to be doing. The roaring in his ears and the need in his body all but canceled out the sound of the cell phone screaming where it lay in her purse flung three or four feet away.

"Smallville," the word came out impatiently as she pushed from him harder, and almost went down too fast toward her phone when his grip suddenly slackened. The phone in her hands, still closed, Lois gave him what would have been a smirk if her lips hadn't been so swollen from the frenzied kissing. "You're stronger than you look. What other things you've been hiding?"

"Lois Lane. Yes, of course, Mr. Kreech. I'm glad to see you changed your mind about the interview," she said formally, once the phone was opened. She had turned and was away from Clark walking toward the down stairway, raising her voice to be heard over the wind.

Clark stumbled to edge of the roof top like he might be just a normal person, only beginning to feel the air rush across his skin and cool the heat right below. His hands had released her and though his breathing seemed much more regulated than hers, he felt like he could fly through the center of the world and it wouldn't even phase him. That probably was what worried him the most.

He wasn't supposed to be up here. He wasn't supposed to be holding the star reporter in his arms. He wasn't supposed to spending an eternity of moments during his day fantasizing about what had happened last time; pushing her up against the wall, the slight weight of her body thrust back against his. He wasn't supposed to be getting off on the fact he knew she wanted him. He wasn't supposed to be having a moments like this.

He wasn't supposed to be making out with Lois as though his life depended on it. Why was it that when he touched her, he felt like he needed to keep touching her to make his heart beat, to make the air keep flowing into his lungs?

And why even across a building roof top was he only able to focus on the warm, wet scent of body after they'd been touching? Why did he find so amusing the more she struggled to flatten her long brown hair back to neat, the wind and her hands just continued to make it worse? Why did he long to pick her up and soar her into the sky and scream to the entire world that Lois Lane didn't hate him?

How long had he waited for Lois to like him?  
How long had he tried to play nice and show her he could be a friend or even an amiable working partner?  
How long had he wondered if she even might smile in his direction since Perry had put them together?

Lex was seriously going to kill him.

"You'll never belive it," she called, the jubilant sound to her voice had nothing to do with what they'd been doing two minutes before, and everything to do with the predatory grin starting to take over her entire face. There was an extra skip in her step, which told him she'd just gotten what she wanted. Another front page interview to frame on her wall, to hold over him, to rave about until tomorrow's next interview and tomorrow's front page story.

Lois threw herself into his arms, wrapping her legs tightly around him and kissed him. Not with a passion or fire to drive him back into the ground, but like she was trying to kiss him straight through his lips and half his face. She pulled back with the crazy titillated smile she got that said she might do somethign crazy because everything was going her way, still rocking her hips just hard enough against him to show him what he'd be missing and said with a bravado, "I've got a now-or-never interview with Kreech. It's going to be a front-pager, I bet you."

That was so her.

"That sounds great, Lois," Clark said, trying not to let dissapointment cloud his face even as it distanced his voice. Once her legs grew laz around him he set her on the ground gently. As not to focus on missing that close contact already, he tried to reimnd himself that he shouldn't be doing this at all. He shouldn't have let it happen the first time. And he shouldn't have let it happen again today. Her expression change, her eyes darkening and narrowing on his face with an intense curiosity. "What?"

"You're a mystery to me," she said with an odd shake of her head as she began trying once again to straighten her hair to something that wouldn't look like it'd been tousled in an almost nooner. "You've shoved me into a wall hard enough to leave bruises. Yet you put me down like I'm a china doll. Sometimes you make no sense at all."

"You got br-"

"Shush," Lois replied, laying a few fingers across his lips and giving him a flippant smile that curled almost to a smirk. "Your guilt will not be allowed to ruin my memories. If I'd had a problem with it then or now you'd know." She leaned up, gave him another rushed kiss that was more a 'pop' sound than a kiss, and dashed for the stairs.

The air was blustery up this high and felt good on his skin as he listened to it roar between the buildings around him. Around him it felt still and cloistered, like everything was trying to lock him away inside himself. It was too still, too quiet without her there touching him suddenly. Though he knew if he listened just a little harder, he'd be able to hear everything from her heels clacking down the stairs to her still rapid pulse.

There was a stillness not to be mistaken for silence that seemed to fill a good bit of distance around him. It had nothing to do truly with the brunette doing her best to run down steps in heels and everything to do with a man half a city away dressed in a pressed, preferably black or dark suit, lounging in a black cozy leather chair, drinking fine brandy slowly since it was still early and sorting through his work.

And if he knew him right, and he did after so long wrapped in those arms, safe in his care, his love, Lex was probably also getting no work done waiting for his partner to show up and have lunch as had been planned in bed between sleepy eyed good mornings and teasings about work on both sides. He would be anxious to see Clark again. Absolutely, had no spotted visions of Clark and the Daily Planet star reporter -who disliked them both most of the time- having snuck out to roof top and making out like teenagers who'd just found out how to kiss and grope members of the opposite sex.

The thought brought a flush to his cheek and with a quick cautionary glance around he rose straight into the air like a bullet.

At the same moment the door to the steps slammed open once again to Lois trying to catch her breath and failing. Her voice was rushed, and grated annoyance heavily, "Hey, Smallville, get your ass over here. Perry wants you in on the interview, too, not that he thought to ask me. The person who got this interview by merits of their hard work and wonderful person-to-person skills. Clark?"

Lois looked around a few seconds biting on her lip , before frustration filled up her entire face. She looked to the right and the left across the part of roof top she could see with it's only one stairway exit and the huge globe, there'd be another exit on the other side and the fire ladder but she doubted he'd have used either. And yet, there was no one here. No one except her and the wind. She stalked out pasted the door a little further, muttering, "I hate it when he does that."


End file.
